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Crackdown on Silk Road, the underground drug market

2025-01-22T08:42:04-05:00

Silk Road laptop

Silk Road was like a black market Amazon.com where you could buy drugs, hacking tools, forged documents, and more. The site operated for three years without consequence, protected by the anonymizing Tor network and the forced use of hard-to-trace virtual currency Bitcoin. It seemed untouchable; its owner, the pseudonymous Dread Pirate Roberts, even declared the war on drugs over and himself the victor in an interview with Forbes. Then in October of 2013, federal agents shut down the site and arrested the man they believe to be responsible.

Amazon is ‘winding down’ some of its DEI programs

2025-01-10T18:08:25-05:00

Like Meta, Amazon is ending some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. In a memo sent last month, Candi Castleberry, Amazon's VP of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company has been "winding down outdated programs and materials" related to its efforts around representation and inclusion, as reported earlier by CNBC and Bloomberg.

In the memo, a copy of which Amazon provided to The Verge, Castleberry wrote that over the past few years, Amazon has been evaluating its programs across the company, each of which "addresses a specific disparity, and is designed to end when that disparity is eliminated." At the same …

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Meta appoints new Trump-friendly policy chief

2025-01-02T16:15:27-05:00

Meta is shaking up its policy team ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, with global policy head Nick Clegg stepping down after seven years at the company. He'll be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and Meta's current vice president of policy.

In a post on Facebook, Clegg says it's the "right time" for him to leave Meta, adding that he'll spend the next few months "handing over the reins" to Kaplan. "Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time - ideally placed to shape the company's strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve," Clegg says.

…

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The US finalizes CHIPS Act funding for Samsung and Texas Instruments

2024-12-21T12:48:07-05:00

The US Commerce Department has awarded Samsung and Texas Instruments with a combined over $6 billion in "direct funding under the CHIPS Incentives Program's Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication," according to a pair of announcements published on Friday.

Samsung will get the larger of the two awards at $4.745 billion. The Commerce Department says the company will use this as part of its planned $37 billion investment in Texas chip facilities that include two new "leading-edge logic fabs and an R&D fab" in Taylor, Texas, and the expansion of its plant in Austin.

The company was originally slated to receive $6.4 billion. In a statem …

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Kia drivers are going to get Google Maps data soon

2024-12-12T10:53:16-05:00

Hyundai and Kia will integrate Google Maps data into their current vehicle infotainment platforms ahead of a switchover to the Android Automotive operating system, the automakers announced today.

Hyundai, Kia, and the luxury nameplate Genesis will use Google Maps Platform's Places API to inject 250 million points of interest into the existing navigation software. Kia will be the first to get the new data integration in North America, with "subsequent expansions" to other Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models globally. Hyundai says the changes are part of an ongoing Google partnership that accelerates their development of what the automaker calls …

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OpenAI sued by Canada’s biggest media outlets

2024-11-29T14:45:59-05:00

A host of Canadian media companies filed a lawsuit against OpenAI today, alleging "inappropriate and illegal" use of their journalism to power the company's GPT model, Reuters reports. It's the latest salvo fired by the media in its fight against AI companies that have scraped large swaths of the open web to train their large-language models.

The suit was filed by several leading Canadian media companies, including the owners of the National Post and Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada. The group alleges that OpenAI infringed on its copyrights when training its models, like ChatGPT, without seeking per …

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Microsoft says it built an Xbox game store on Android but can’t launch it

2024-11-27T18:49:31-05:00

A few weeks ago, Microsoft exec Sarah Bond said that in November, "players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android." It's almost December and the feature still isn't live, but Bond says it's not Microsoft's fault.

The problem, as she puts it, is that Microsoft would only be able to do it once a court order takes effect that forces sweeping changes for Google's Play Store on Android, like opening it up to competition and ending the requirement for apps to use Google Play Billing.

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Apple launches Final Cut Pro 11 with even more AI features

2024-11-13T18:00:00-05:00

It’s been 25 years since the first Final Cut Pro was announced.

More than a decade after the launch of Final Cut Pro X, Apple's video editing software is taking a step forward. The app is now being updated to Final Cut Pro 11, after dropping the number in its name for the past few years. The update includes new AI masking tools, the ability to generate captions directly in your timeline, spatial video editing features, and a set of workflow improvements. The new version is free for existing users and a $299 one-time purchase for new users. Final Cut Pro for iPad and Final Cut Camera are also getting some updates today, too.

I've spent the last week testing out these new features, and many of them are gr …

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The Polestar 3 with rear-wheel drive and 350 miles of range will start at $68,900

2024-11-13T08:00:00-05:00

Polestar revealed new pricing and range details for the rear-wheel drive version of its Polestar 3 SUV, which began reaching customers earlier this month.

The single-motor RWD Polestar 3 will be the most affordable and longest range version of the EV, starting at $68,900 (including a $1,400 destination charge) and getting an EPA-rated range of 350 miles. The long-range single motor EV will be built alongside the dual-motor, all-wheel drive version of the Polestar 3 at its factory in South Carolina.

With that starting price, and its North American manufacturing bonafides, the RWD Polestar 3 should qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credi …

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Waymo’s robotaxis are now available to everyone in Los Angeles

2024-11-12T11:00:00-05:00

Waymo is ditching its waitlist in Los Angeles, much like it did before in Phoenix and San Francisco, making its fully autonomous vehicles available to anyone who downloads the company's Waymo One app.

There are still some geographic limitations with which to contend: Waymo only operates within 80 square miles of Los Angeles County, which includes neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Chinatown, Westwood, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, and Playa Vista.

Still, it was a sign of the company's growing confidence in its technology, especially after securing a record $5.6 billion investment round, led by its parent company, Alphabet, to help fund its next …

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